Adria heads investigation

If it's currently difficult to book a table at El Bulli, the world’s most famous restaurant, it may become a whole lot harder, should Chef-patron Ferran Adria gets his way.

Adri? has given his clearest indication thus far of the plans he has for his restaurant and rather than increasing the number of covers offered, he hopes to reduce them considerably.

In an exclusive interview with Restaurant magazine (see p90), the legendary chef explained that El Bulli would continue its current operation for the next five years but that afterwards it might cease to be a restaurant in the conventional sense.

“The format might change,” he said. “It’s possible we will become a place of investigation. A place where people can sometimes come to eat so that we can get feedback and have a relationship with the consumer. We would have just eight or ten people in the staff here. And two or three tables. It would be doing what we do another way.”

Adri? feels he has been distracted in recent years by business matters and is keen to focus on cooking again. His passion for creating a “new language of cuisine” remains undiminished and his vision for El Bulli is designed to enable him to spend even more time on his research.

“Imagine a company like Pixar: think about what would happen if they didn’t have time to create. It would be impossible. Our dream is to cook for one or two tables every day,” he added. “We could then present our new creations all over the world.”

Currently, El Bulli is open six months of the year. It receives well over 300,000 requests for a table. With just 135 services this year, it can meet less than 7,000 of those requests.